Echelon Takes the Smart Grid to the Edge

Echelon (s ELON), the long-time building controls company that also makes smart meter networks, on Wednesday launched a new software-hardware combo to control the distribution portion of the grid. The product has two notable aspects: it’s open to third-party application developers, and its first customer will be utility Duke Energy (s DUK), which has pledged some $14.5 million for an initial order.

Echelon’s approach is to place edge control nodes at the low-voltage transformers that typically serve as the final step-down point between the local grid and end users, and link them up with its software control platform. Transmission lines and big distribution substations have controls and communications, but the grid’s edges are pretty much dark. That’s why utility workers have to rely on phone calls and truck crews to find the cause of power outages.

Echelon is making an unusual move by opening up its ECoS platform to third-party application developers — but then, given that Echelon wants to provide a platform capable of adaptation for a wide variety of uses, that makes sense. Jeff Lund, Echelon’s vice president of business development, compared the ECN to a “one-size-fits-all grid device to match the smart phone,” and the Linux-based ECoS platform as the framework for running a host of applications over that platform. A key goal, he said, is to embed “distributed intelligence” in the system, so that far-flung sensors and controls can react at the speed of the grid to anticipate and avoid problems. After all, he noted, “The fastest network connection is the one you never have to send data across.”

Echelon’s smart meters now communicate using powerline networking, which sends information over the same lines that conduct electricity — a fact that allows Echelon to pick up information on voltage and frequency that wireless-based solutions might have to add extra sensors to get at, he noted. Still, Echelon intends to support a host of wireless connections for ECoS and its ECNs, including industry-standard 900-megahertz systems.

It’s not surprising that Duke would be the first customer for Echelon’s new ECoS platform. Last year, Duke became the first U.S. utility to use Echelon’s smart meters and networking platform, with an initial $15.8 million order that could grow to up to $150 million. But at the same time, Duke has a long list of smart grid partners that includes two makers of multi-modal grid communications platforms (Ambient and SmartSynch), as well as Cisco (though the two haven’t said much about what they’re doing together).

Other companies that praised Echelon’s new offering in a Wednesday press event included Oracle, eMeter, iControl, S&C Electric, Vattenfall and Verizon — though that doesn’t mean that those companies are partners yet. Echelon expects to be shipping field trial ECN late this year, and predicts production-level shipments will begin in mid-2011. The company hasn’t released any pricing information on the platform, Lund said.

For more research on the intersection of green and IT check out GigaOM Pro (subscription required):